Epilogue
by Ragnar-Pendon
Summary: Introducing a new set of Twins that will be haunted and tormented by the Lost Village. Not to mention, they will be bringing a few of their friends along
1. Chapter 1

Note to readers:

I haven't played Fatal Frame with that much sound (unfortunate for me because I know that the prime source of the game's scare factor comes from sound – or lack of it at certain parts). I played the game in a noisy (and I mean noisy) PS2 . . . arcade . . . where I had to pay 25 PHP (close to half a dollar) an hour – and that is expensive . . . I can buy lunch with that kind of money.

By the way, this fic follows the "normal" ending for the game. And also, this is, as the title implies, an epilogue of sorts, which means, there are spoilers here and there for those who haven't gone far into the game. I'll try to keep it at a minimum though.

Anyway, enjoy the fic.

GLOSSARY (for terms that I think might not be in common use credit goes to Byakko's Recon for bringing up the idea.

"Scratch lines" – those weird lines you sometimes see moving side to side in old movies. Some kung fu movies from the 60's to the 80's would be good examples (From the originals, not the digitally remastered versions)

"Sky-bridge" – bridges between buildings. (Some people don't know about these things. Trust me, the city I live in has only one overpass and one sky-bridge.)

"_Barkada_" – Filipino term roughly translated into a group of your close personal friends. Your gang, so to speak.

**DISCLAIMER:**

ALL CHARACTERS MY PROPERTY EXCEPT THE CHARACTERS PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL GAME (MIYU, MAYU, YAE, SAE, ETC – I HAVE YET TO RECALL THE REST ).

ANY RESEMBLANCE OF _MY_ CHARACTERS TO ANY PERSON REAL OR FICTITIOUS IS MERELY COINCIDENCE AND I AM NOT LIABLE TO BE PSYCHIC IF SAID CHARACTER/S END UP BEING EXACTLY LIKE SAID PERSON/S.

**FATAL FRAME 2 FANFIC**

**EPILOGUE** Chapter 01: Seeds 

**YURIKO DILAG**

The people back home say that dreams are like movies with big parts you can't remember.

This wasn't like a movie.

Radio . . . most likely.

"_Help me!" _

The voices were strange. She could still here the normal words but she could also hear what sounded like the backtrack of those voices overlapping with what she understood.

"_Save me!"_

There were no pictures, only darkness . . . and the voices . . . and the screams.

She didn't even think this was a dream.

It was as close to a nightmare as most.

Maybe it was.

"_My eyes! My EYES!"_

She was vaguely aware of the plane tilting slightly. They must be landing soon.

"_So . . . dark . . . so . . . dark . . . save me . . . please . . . any . . . body."_

"_Yae! Why didn't you come back!"_

Yae . . . that name . . .

"_Yae Yae Yae yae yae yae yae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . YAE!"_

She promised . . . what was it that she promised?

"_It's our fault he died . . . yae . . . why didn't you come?"_

Then, she heard giggling. The childlike giggling sounded out of place, but at the same time, unsettlingly fitting.

She suddenly found herself in a strange place. An old fashioned Japanese village. The buildings looked like they were from some outdated and overused samurai movie from the sixties. Which, it would seem, was exactly that. She was seeing in black and white . . . there were even scratch lines () that streaked here and there at the corners of her vision. But what was really weird was that when she looked down on herself, she was in full color.

The village was in ruins. Looking straight ahead, following the path between a destroyed house to her right and a wall to her left, the world was swallowed by the night and only a lone, flickering lantern gave the little light around it. The lantern was blood red.

Well, since she was already here, she might as well look around.

From the first step she took, she knew she was in trouble. How . . . she didn't know.

Sand crunched beneath her shoes with each step. The oppressive silence threatened to crush her from every direction. The wind caressed her face even though she knew there wasn't any wind. Her heart pounded next her to eardrums with each step she took.

With each step, she found herself more and more mesmerized by the crimson light. Like a moth to a flame. Like a butterfly to a flower.

The girl's voice was clear, not like the wordless and coherent screams earlier. It was more human, more real, and more . . . alive.

"Yae."

She spun to her right and faced a wide alley. Her hair, flipping in front of her eyes, obscured her vision of what seemed to be something that glowed white.

Brushing her hair aside, she saw that there was nothing there.

Strange. Maybe that girl ran on.

Overcome with curiosity, she moved toward the alley, checking every door she passed and found that they were all locked. One door, strangely, remained closed even though she felt the door latch come open. Maybe the hinges were jammed.

Moving on she found herself going down a large stairway. The building surrounding her started to grow large and imposing the farther she went down.

"Yae."

She looked up to a small sky-bridge () knowing that was where the voice came from. No one was there. Maybe she was just hearing things after hearing the name "Yae" almost every five seconds. So, she kept on walking until she came upon a gate.

A hand touched her shoulder.

"Yae, you came."

The hairs at the back of her neck rose. She spun around. No one was there.

What is going on?

She stepped back, groping behind her for something to hold on to. Her hand found the wooden gate.

"Yae."

Her eyes widened in terror. The presence and the voice behind her were as real as someone breathing on her shoulder. Fear ran up and down her spine in cold waves.

"Yae."

She found herself facing a girl. She looked into pitch-black eyes fixed on an impossibly white face that looked through hers as well. Try as she might, she couldn't look away. The girl's grip on her face was terrifying. How the girl managed to hold her without her knowing it was frightful enough.

But the scream . . .

That one scream that came from all directions filled her soul with terror. It threatened to rip her apart in pain.

The world around her faded from existence in a blinding white light. But the girl's face never left her. It came closer and closer until it was the last thing she could see.

"Ma'am?" it was the flight attendant.

The white flash of light flickered reluctantly into nothing. But the young girl's face wasn't as eager to disappear. Thankfully, it slowly faded away as well.

Yuriko gasped awake, already dismissing and forgetting everything as a case of airsickness. She only put up with it because she was going to meet with her twin sister who lived with Dad in Japan. Mom didn't like the idea of her leaving the Philippines for two months every summer but she understood, even though the divorce was hard – and ugly – mom didn't like Yuriko being separated from a twin. And besides, Yuriko wasn't very fond of the April heat back home.

Mom and dad met each other in a Japanese college. Dad was majoring in Computer Science. Mom was his English teacher. It wasn't really that unusual; mom is four years younger than dad is.

Mom once told her, more than once with a smile, that Grandma almost died of a heart attack because she found out that Mom was going to be with a "yellow-skinned _Hapon_ who was going to beat her daughter everyday".

Of course, Dad was never like that. Of the little she could remember of him from when she _could_ remember until she was five, the time he and Mom got divorced, Dad never did anything that was anything close to what Grandma said. In fact, Yuriko knew that Mom and Dad were in love. Yuriko didn't know why Mom had to leave him, though – she never told her.

When the divorce papers were signed, Dad god Michiko, Mom got her.

It was two years before Mom was able to let Yuriko visit her sister. Well, Dad paid for everything anyway and Mom thought that she could at least let her see Michiko every summer to keep her and her sister close. Mom once said that the saddest thing she could ever see was to see twins hating each other. Yuriko never could figure out why Mom's eyes would turn sad when she said that.

"Yes?" Yuriko pulled herself away from her thoughts and answered the stewardess.

"We're landing soon, the captain just turned on the seatbelt sign," the stewardess said with a smile that matched those blue eyes and blond hair.

"Thank you," Yuriko replied while quickly strapping on the seatbelt. The stewardess was cute but was too old for her taste.

Oh crap, not again . . .

Inwardly, Yuriko groaned and repeatedly pounded the back of her head to her seat. _That _is what you get if most of your _barkada _()are testosterone-crazy freaks more commonly known as teenage boys.

_Straight! I'm straight, damn it! I'm not lesbian! . . . . . am I? _

She almost howled at that last thought. Desperately, she put on her MP3 player's earphones, cranked up the volume to max, and pushed play on the first track on her list. However, the music that pounded on her ears weren't the J-pop Animé theme songs she downloaded and loved. It was one of Britney's songs.

To her horror, the images of that music video Britney had with Madonna flashed through her head. She practically yanked off the earphones from the shock.

This is Dana's MP3 player, not hers! Their players must have switched when they were rushing from the taxi to the terminal.

To her relief, the familiar squeal of the plane's tires on the tarmac saved her from any further disturbing thoughts her friends jammed into her brain.

The captain's voice on the PR thanked them all for their patronage and asked them all, in an orderly fashion to disembark after the plane has come to a full and complete stop. That last one reminded Yuriko of a fire drill. Maybe the captain was a fireman before he became a pilot.

The trip into the terminal was quite uneventful. Except for her luggage being the first down the moving line of bags, all she had to do was wait for either Michiko or Dad to pick her up.

Five minutes passed as she leaned on soda machine amidst the bustling crowds until . . .

"YURIKO!"

Before she even had time to turn to the screaming voice, she felt Michiko hit her with a full body tackle.

And the world went truly mad.

Images.

People.

Dead people. Dead people on the floor.

Twitching.

Moaning.

There was blood everywhere.

There were screams coming from everywhere.

Faces.

Faces staring at her with dead eyes.

A girl stood in the middle of a large room. Blood soaked her white kimono. Her sleeves were dripping with it. Her _obe _was black with blood.

She was laughing.

She was looking at her.

"Yae . . ." she called.

Yuriko slammed against the floor, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Luckily, her luggage broke most of the fall instantly forgetting the visions merely as shock. 

"Yuriko?"

She must have hit her head on the way down to the floor. Michiko's face was a blur.

She felt her sister come off her while at the same time, offer her a hand up. Yuriko took the time to straighten herself out before taking a look at her twin sister.

Michiko looked exactly like Yuriko but by face only. The places where they grew up in allowed a few changes. While Yuriko's skin was tanned, Michiko was creamy white. While Yuriko's form was more athletic, Michiko was somewhere close to being a model.

Yuriko's hair was black, straight, and pulled back into a ponytail. Michiko had her short hair dyed a light pink streaked with white. A long pigtail started from the nape of her neck while the rest of her hair was cut short, and there was a small pink star – probably a sticker, Yuriko didn't really know – on Michiko's right cheek.

Yuriko was wearing her favorite set of clothes; a simple and comfortable green tank top and pants that covered her legs short of the ankles. Michiko, however, as always, dressed up like an animé character. Her twin sister had on a white T-shirt bordered pink on the sleeves and neckline and, unsurprisingly, a large pink star printed on the front. She wore a denim skirt that was short enough to be almost called a micro-mini. Michiko also had numerous and long strings of beads hanging from a belt hoop on her left thigh.

She had played enough PS2 to know that Michiko was trying use Yuna from FFX-2 as her "dress model" for the day. Not that she minds, Michiko is like that and Yuriko thought that it suited her sister.

Michiko sheepishly pulled back a strand of hair from her eyes. "How are you sis?" Her twin's English was pretty good – an effect of too much TV and too many books. It was a trait they both shared.

"I'm fine. The last I checked, I'm still alive . . . " Yuriko broke into a mischievous grin, " . . . well, most of me." She then hugged her sister.

They chatted with each other as they walked to the parking lot, dragging her luggage along the way. Dad got promoted on the job and was now head of the R&D department of a software company. Michiko was having trouble picking from five guys who were asking her out, not to mention that her twin sister was learning how to drive.

That Michiko would be the one to learn how to drive first didn't exactly make Yuriko jealous. It was just that liked the idea that they would learn together more.

They were both turning fifteen this April and Michiko said that Dad was going to send Mom an invitation, as always. Yuriko knew that Mom wouldn't accept it though, as always.

It was when they were in the airport's underground parking lot when . . .

"Yae . . ."

Yuriko's hair practically stood on end from the chilling feeling running up her spine. She turned this way and that looking for the source of the voice.

She tried to take in every detail when she turned her head to make sure she won't miss whoever was calling out. Cars were everywhere. She turned to her left and there was no one there, only cars. She turned to the right and there was only a van going up the ramp and into the road. She looked behind her and saw more cars and a girl in a white kimono. She looked back to the door and saw quite a large family, possibly Korean by their speech, spill out the doorway.

"Yuriko? What's wrong?" Michiko asked with a hand on Yuriko's shoulder.

Yuriko smiled, drawing some comfort from her sister's touch. "N-nothing . . . must be jetlag."

When they reached the car, they both dumped the bags into the trunk. When Yuriko was about to get inside however, that cold feeling ran up her spine once more.

_A girl in a white kimono _. . .

She turned around again, slowly. Her heart beat so hard that it might come through her chest. She knew that girl from somewhere. From some dream she couldn't recall.

"Yae . . ."

That name . . . that girl . . .

But when Yuriko's eyes found the spot, the girl was gone.

"I swear, Yuriko, I would be rich if I get a dollar for every time you space out at me." Michiko said with a grin but with a hint of a worried frown.

Yuriko just waved of her sister's concern while getting inside the car. "I'm fine," she said with a smile, "let's go see Dad."

Michiko's grin widened as they sped off towards the house.

Yuriko had a feeling that this summer would be a very memorable.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note to readers (who might not know, just wanna be sure):**

First off, if the words are _italicized_, they are most likely supposed to be in Japanese, or, the person speaking is talking in Japanese. OR, the person is thinking something to him/herself or having a flashback. If that's the case, then the regular font is supposed to be in Japanese; ex. _The word _"Japanese" _is supposed to be in Japanese in this thought . . . bubble_. (I'm not making sense, am I?)

I'd love to use actual Japanese words but what can I say? _Atashi no Nihon-go taihen na sugoi_, I think that would be it. I don't want to make any Japanese speaking folk cringe at the little Japanese I know. Well, maybe I can risk putting in a few genuine words, just tell me where I got wrong and I'll correct it ASAP. (which means I'll correct it the next time online.)

Second, sorry for the slow update, I'm juggling two fics (that includes this one) and my personal and school lives are quite a bit of a priority for the time being. Also, I was wrestling on whether or not I would have to change the script to get rid of script spoilers (my other way of saying that I only have the gist of the script in memory now and not word for word ). Not to mention the fact that my diskettes were mixed up with the laundry . . . grrrrrr.

And lastly, to answer some questions not yet asked, yes, I am using some rather popular Japanese names and surnames. Hey, can you blame me? I live in a country where practically nobody speaks the language.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews and I hope that you guys would like my story as it grows .

Also, the poor guy who ends up as the substitute sacrifice in the absence of twins is called the "**Takeguchi**", right? If not, please tell me, I don't want to embarrass myself to the game's fans. TT

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**GLOSSARY** **AND TRIVIA **(for terms that I think might not be in common use credit goes to Byakko's Recon for bringing up the idea.)

Do you guys know that you're supposed to drive on the left side of the road in Japan? (just so you know. )

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**DISCLAIMER:**

ALL CHARACTERS ARE MY PROPERTY EXCEPT THE CHARACTERS PRESENT IN THE ORIGINAL GAME/S (MIYU, MAYU, YAE, SAE, ETC – I HAVE YET TO RECALL THE REST ).

ANY RESEMBLANCE OF _MY_ CHARACTERS TO ANY PERSON REAL OR FICTITIOUS IS MERELY COINCIDENCE AND I AM NOT LIABLE TO BE PSYCHIC IF SAID CHARACTER/S END UP BEING EXACTLY LIKE SAID PERSON/S.

THIS FIC IS ALSO LIABLE TO BE CORRECTED BY THE READERS SHOULD THEY UNANIMOUSLY INFORM THE WRITER OF HIS MISTAKE. I.E. PLOT IGNORANCE, COSTUMES, SCRIPT ERRORS, ETC.

**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ**

Awww crap, enough of my nattering. Enjoy the fic.

**FATAL FRAME 2 FANFIC**

**EPILOGUE**

Chapter 02: White Hair

**SAITO MICHIKO **

It was a good drive. It didn't have much traffic, not much pollution either. Yuriko was taking a nap on the passenger seat. Michiko couldn't resist a smile. Here comes another two months, she thought to herself.

"Kenji . . ." Yuriko murmured.

Michiko's smile grew even wider. So that's the boy's name. Yuriko must be dreaming about Michiko's next door neighbor. It was obvious from the start, but Yuriko denies any feeling she might have for the guy. Michiko can't blame her, the two of them have an ocean between them. Not to mention the fact that Kenji likes to tease Yuriko every so often to the point that, if memory serves, he ended up with a bloodied nose.

Of course her sister apologized after that, but Kenji just grinned and said that he should be the one apologizing.

Not wanting to interrupt Yuriko's sleep, Michiko reached out and pulled down the passenger's sun visor so that the glare from the street won't startle her awake. The two of them will have a lot of time in their hands anyway, wouldn't hurt if Yuriko would nap for a while.

**Change POV**

**YURIKO DIAZ**

"_Hurry Sae! They're closing in on us!"_

The dry leaves underneath them crunched with every frantic step. Her dark kimono ripped with every bramble they rushed through and the soles of her feet – her slippers fell off as they ran – bore many injuries from the thorns and twigs lying on the path. Sae, her twin sister, ran right behind her bore the same injuries and pain she was suffering.

"_Yae."_

The footsteps behind her suddenly slowed down. She looked behind her to see her sister had stopped.

"_Sae!" _she cried out but she kept on running, if only a little slower, _"we have to hurry, we're almost there. They can't find us when we reach the place Itsuki told us about!"_

But Sae didn't start running. Instead, there were tears falling down her eyes. _"It's our fault they hurt him, Yae. We shouldn't have gone."_

This time, she stopped and reached out with her hand. _"Sae," _she called, _"we have to get away from here. I don't want to send you to that horrible place down at the caves!"_

"_If you won't come back with me, Yae, but I must do it, there is no other way I know to save the village from the Repentance. But if you must, go . . . sister . . . live."_

"_Noooo!" _she started for her sister, but her skirt caught on a bramble keeping her from moving forward. _"Come with me, Sae!"_

But her sister turned and ran back to All Gods Village.

Yuriko found herself to be the only thing if full color in a village that was in black, white, and red. The glow from the lanterns gave off their eerie gray light as she felt the urge to follow the group of people escorting a girl to a big house beyond a long bridge.

_Flash._

Bells.

Or at least it sounded like bells. When she peeked around the corner, she saw men with their faces covered with paper amulets hitting their staffs tipped with bronze ring on the ground. That was where the sound came from. They were chanting something in Japanese but the words were too quickly spoken together and so archaic that to Yuriko, it all sounded like mush.

"_Sae,"_

Yuriko can understand and speak Japanese but . . . that name! She knows that name . . . but from where?

She looked to the center of the cave and saw a great hole. A girl was standing on a plank placed above the pit. A man was holding her hand.

"_Yes, father?" _the girl's face was determined. But fear still pushed through her courageous mask.

"_This has never been done before, it is most likely to fail. Why won't we just wait for another stranger to come to the village? Surely, one will come soon." _The man seems to be gripping the girl's hand.

"_Yae will come to us, father, to do the Crimson Ritual with me. But even if she is too late, or even if she won't come, I must do this . . . it is for the village, father."_

Yuriko suppressed a gasp when she saw two men, hunched-back from numerous gashes on their bodies threw a rope on a pole lying above the pit. What was more disturbing about them though, were their eyes.

They had no eyes.

"_You are the bravest girl I know, my daughter." _The man said.

"_I love you, father. Please don't hate Yae when she comes back and please tell her that I also love her too." _The girl was crying.

The scene made Yuriko want to go to the girl and hold her.

Her hands were bound behind her. The noose was tightened around the girl's neck.

"_Yae."_

And the girl looked at the gathered people.

No.

She looked straight at her.

"_Yae, you came."_

The fine hairs on the back of Yuriko's neck stood on end at the girl's smile. Her heart pounded at an inexplicable intensity and a chill rushed up and down her spine when their eyes met.

But before Yuriko could respond to the girl's call, Sae jumped into the pit. The rope snapped tight, the wooden pole bent on the sudden weight but it didn't even crack. Sae's long hair bounced and whipped from her back to the front, covering her face. Blood splashed down on the front of her kimono as she coughed out blood from her broken windpipe.

Her struggle was quick and it was only from suffocation.

And she was dead.

The chanting continued. The staffs kept on pounding.

Was there something else?

Is there something else to expect?

The people didn't even bother to get a glimpse of her as she closed the distance between her and the pit and the swinging body above it. She reached out. She tried to touch the girl's limp form.

But the rope was cut, and the body fell down into the pit.

"NOOOOOO!" Yuriko screamed as she rushed forward to catch the girl but she tripped and fell. She was afraid that she might fall down into that pit as well, but she hit the ground a few feet away from the opening.

Curiosity conquered Yuriko's senses and she slowly crawled closer.

She can only look down into it. Try as she might, she couldn't pull her eyes from slowly looking down into the endless dark before her.

Pained moans and bloodcurdling screams echoed from below. An unnaturally cold wind blew from the pit. The earth shook.

She looked down . . . she looked all the way down.

But something was coming up from the abyss. Something she couldn't see but rather feel. Something . . .evil.

And when she saw it . . . she screamed.

The car screeched to a sudden halt and jerked Yuriko awake. She quickly forgot what she was dreaming about as surprise quickly replaced her terror.

But why was she afraid?

And why is she in a cold sweat?

Was it just a dream?

What did she dream?

Yuriko tried to remember, but she couldn't, and she quickly dismissed it as another dream.

"Michiko, what's wrong?" Yuriko asked while rubbing away what little sleep remained in her eyes.

"Darn cat got in the way. Almost ran it over." her sister replied. She then took a look at Yuriko's face, "You OK? You look as though you've seen a ghost."

Yuriko shook her head as the car started to move again. "It's nothing, I just had a bad dream, I think."

"You 'think'?" Michiko answered flatly.

Yuriko rubbed her eyes with a thumb and forefinger. "I don't know anymore, I'm just too tired, that's all. Maybe it's just jetlag."

Michiko sighed. "Alright, if you say so." After a pause, her sister added with a grin, "So, are you going to meet with Kenji after we get home?"

That jerked her awake. "Why do you say that!" she exclaimed with a perplexed frown on her face.

Her sister grinned with a mock evil chuckle rising from her throat. "Ohhhh, I don't know. Maybe because you were saying his name while you were taking a nap."

"I did not!" Yuriko protested. That wasn't what she was dreaming about! Is she sure? Then what was her dream?

Michiko still kept on grinning while her eyes returned to watching the road ahead. The traffic wasn't thick today, lucky for all of them because Michiko wasn't that good a driver as Yuriko observed. Her sister kept on going to the right side of the road. "If you say so." Was Michiko's nonchalant reply.

Yuriko leaned her head on the car window and started thinking on the way.

What was she dreaming about?

She thought about it as the car sped on the freeway.

**Change POV**

**YAMASHITA KENJI**

"_Iaaaaaaaaaaa!_" the girl screamed with all her might as he came closer to her. His hands bloodied with whatever remained of their other dorm mates. She was the only one left to kill. The knife in his hand was steady no matter how much his fingers twitched with the excitement.

She inched away from him. Her tear-filled, big, dark eyes stared at him with stark terror. Her friends' bodies littered every inch of the room. He wanted her to see this. He wanted her to know what was coming.

"_Yamite kudasai!" _Her face was so beautiful, with her hair framing her almost round face. The way the lines folded on the middle of her brow. The folds of her skin between her cheeks and her wide open and trembling lips. The way her shoes slipped the floor while her sailor-style white school uniform matted to her skin with blood, showing off the curves of her body in a surprisingly indecent manner. Every detail was enticing to him. Every moment was priceless.

He raised the knife.

She can find no escape.

He will have her memory forever with him.

In the end she will thank him.

Her screams fill his ears.

And he plunged the blade down.

"_Aaaand . . . cut! Print it!_" the American director cried out in his rudimentary Japanese.

Kenji sighed and dropped the fake knife on the floor. The smell of the fake blood all around him wasn't exactly . . . pleasant. He extended his hand towards the extra to help her up. The red goop all over the floor wasn't giving any extra traction and her shoes might slip. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to be a gentleman, after all.

"_Daijobu, Kai-chan?"_ he said, _"you took quite a fall on that last part."_

Kayako seemed to have blushed, but Kenji doubted it though, that red stuff got smeared all over her cheeks. Not to mention the fact that Kayako was also known as the class "Ice Queen", the meaning of that was probably obvious enough when she looks at boys.

Too bad, really, Kenji knew a few guys who would do anything to be with a girl who looked like her and a few more he knew were only up to no good. Lucky forKayako though,most of the guys in the senior years looked out for her like a little sister. That would mean company on the walk home, conversations on the way to the cafeteria, and a whole lot of stuff that won't let her alone in a place where Kenji's classmates judged to be unsafe for a girl like her.

He would know because he was one of those guys who looked out for her. Although, Kenji admits to himself, he used to be one of her stalkers. What could he do at the time? The school crush was really that hot.

"_I'm fine, thank you, Kenji._" She said as she took his hand. Then, Kayako wiped off some of the fake blood on her face with the back of her hand. "_You're a very good actor, for High School kid._"

Kenji let out a shy laugh. "_I could say the same for you, eighth grader._" He said with a smile.

He worked part time as an actor. He's not famous, really, but he acts, and that's enough for some people. Although he does have a knack in convincing a few producers into including his friends in some of their films – B-movies, but at least they get to be in front of the camera.

For the meantime, he's doing an American style horror movie. However, Kenji doesn't get how this kind of movie could be so scary to westerners though; there's not much in it other than blood and breasts.

"_Kenji._" Kayako's voice interrupted his strain of thought.

"_Eh?_"

"_You spaced out on me again._" She said with one of those mysterious smiles of hers. To tell the truth, on a face like hers, that smile wasn't exactly . . . fitting . . . disconcerting was more of the word.

"_Ano . . . gomen._" He apologized with a bow.

"_Penny for your thoughts?_" she asked.

He tried to find the words to say. It took a few moments but at least he got to say them before Kayako could say he spaced out again. "_Yuriko is coming to visit today_."

That smile of hers grew even wider. "_Ahhh . . . soh des ka._"

"_What does that mean!_" he replied with a hint of indignation.

Kayako craned her neck so her face can come closer to him. Really, she may only be five feet two and he five feet five, she still has a way of making those eyes of hers bigger that what should be humanly normal . . . creepy . . . especially after watching _Ju-on_ just last Sunday.

"_Nothing. I was just interested in the way your face changes every time you say her name._" She replied

"_What?_" Kenji answered back, "_it's just that I rarely get to have a chance to talk to foreigners – I mean – people outside the country, you know. I seem to get better information from Yuriko about the Philippines that I get from just the tour books, that's all._"

Kayako . . . giggled . . . she creeps him out when she does that. "_There it is again._"

Kenji sighed in exasperation. There's just no winning an argument against her.

Kayako then proceeded for the snack table after being handed a towel by a crewmember. Before she went from him, though, she turned around with an appraising look and said, "_By the way . . . nice hair._"

For the fourth time today, Kenji consciously ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair that was tied back at the base of his neck. "_Really?_" he asked.

Kayako just bowed at him and she proceeded for the food.

Kenji stole a look at the standing mirror just a few feet away from the set. Really though, even at this distance, his newly dyed hair still won't make him look like an old man . . . fortunately.

Something he saw at the mirror caught his eye, forcing him to come closer. Something red was on his neck.

It was strange, the way the fake blood smeared on his skin. It was as if a butterfly was stamped on him. Maybe the red stuff splashed on him on that last scene and he forgot about it . . . maybe. With the collar of his costume, he wiped off the blood from his neck and with the back of his hand, pulled back a strand of white hair from his eyes.

Without much of a second thought, he went straight for the snack table.


End file.
